Synopsis

Just a century ago, cheese was still a relatively regional and European phenomenon, and cheese making techniques were limited by climate, geography, and equipment. But modern technology along with the recent artisanal renaissance has opened up the diverse, time-honored, and dynamic world of cheese to enthusiasts willing to take its humble fundamentals—milk, starters, coagulants, and salt—and transform them into complex edibles.

Artisan Cheese Making at Home is the most ambitious and comprehensive guide to home cheese making, filled with easy-to-follow instructions for making mouthwatering cheese and dairy items. Renowned cooking instructor Mary Karlin has spent years working alongside the country’s most passionate artisan cheese producers—cooking, creating, and learning the nuances of their trade. She presents her findings in this lavishly illustrated guide, which features more than eighty recipes for a diverse range of cheeses: from quick and satisfying Mascarpone and Queso Blanco to cultured products like Crème Fraîche and Yogurt to flavorful selections like Saffron-Infused Manchego, Irish-Style Cheddar, and Bloomy Blue Log Chèvre.

Artisan Cheese Making at Home begins with a primer covering milks, starters, cultures, natural coagulants, and bacteria—everything the beginner needs to get started. The heart of the book is a master class in home cheese making: building basic skills with fresh cheeses like ricotta and working up to developing and aging complex mold-ripened cheeses. Also covered are techniques and equipment, including drying, pressing, and brining, as well as molds and ripening boxes. Last but not least, there is a full chapter on cooking with cheese that includes more than twenty globally-influenced recipes featuring the finished cheeses, such as Goat Cheese and Chive Fallen Soufflés with Herb-Citrus Vinaigrette and Blue Cheese, Bacon, and Pear Galette.

Offering an approachable exploration of the alchemy of this extraordinary food, Artisan Cheese Making at Home proves that hand-crafting cheese is not only achievable, but also a fascinating and rewarding process.

Excerpt

Though there are more than two thousand varieties of cheese hailing from ethnic cultures around the world, on the most basic level cheeses all rely on the same components: milk, starters (whether naturally occurring bacteria or starter cultures), coagulants (such as rennet), and salt.

The process always begins with milk. Then either natural bacteria start to work on the milk, or a starter culture is added. These act on the milk sugar (lactose), converting it to lactic acid. A coagulant is then added to this hospitable environment, causing the milk protein casein to curdle, or coagulate, forming a solid mass of curds. From there, the curds are cut into a specific size, depending on the style of cheese being made. Then they are stirred, drained, and salted; molded or pressed; and, finally, ripened or aged. Voilà: cheese, in all its variety.

In my beginning cheese making class, we start with simple fresh cheeses as the first step in demystifying how cheese happens. Queso blanco (page 38), for example, is a very simple cheese made with whole cow’s milk and coagulated with vinegar. The milk is heated to a specific temperature, then the acid (vinegar) is added and stirred to distribute. Like magic, curds begin to appear from the depths of the white liquid. Suddenly, with only a little stirring, there are fluffy curds floating in clear, yellowish whey. Drain the curds and toss them with salt, and you’ve got cheese. Queso blanco is not complex in terms of flavor, but its simplicity demonstrates the fundamental action that takes place in transforming milk into cheese. Not all cheeses are formed as easily, but by following the steps and stages presented in this book, you’ll gain a rounded understanding of how cheeses of varying degrees of complexity stem from this common foundation.

Building Your Skills: The Habits of Successful Cheese Making

This book is structured to let you develop your skills progressively. We’ll start with the easiest fresh cheeses and add complexity from there. If you are a beginner, I encourage you to start at the beginning and build your skills as you go, because the key to successful cheese making is to start with small, manageable steps. With each success, you’ll want to make more cheese. As you develop your skills and gain an understanding of and level of comfort with the cheese making process, you will build your repertoire on a solid foundation. Be patient. You may be successful the first time you make a cheese, but then again, you may not be. It takes time to master the skills; however, even mistakes can be delicious!

Here are some practices and habits of mind that will help you succeed, whatever your level of cheese making experience.

1. Make Small BatchesRegardless of which cheese you are attempting, make an amount that you have the equipment to handle and the room to ripen, and that you can store and consume within a couple of weeks of its readiness. By making small batches, you have the opportunity to make and taste a variety of cheeses rather than a larger amount of only one. The cheese making recipes presented in this book are geared for small batches, using mostly 1 or 2 gallons of milk. As a general rule, 1 gallon of milk yields 1 pound of firm or hard cheese and up to 2 pounds of fresh cheese. Note that all the yields for the cheeses are approximate.

As I worked on this book, I often had a dozen different cheeses ripening in my cheese refrigerator “cave” at any given time. I worked in small batches, and because the cheeses were aged for different amounts of time, at least one of them was always ready to taste and enjoy. This may be too complicated an undertaking for beginners, but for me it was a perfect arrangement.

2. Set Your ExpectationsBefore you jump in to make any given cheese for the first time, familiarize yourself with what that cheese looks like and, better still, what it smells and tastes like. It’s important to have a frame of reference for the cheese you are trying to create before you make it, and with such a wealth of information available, both from reference works like this one and from your own senses as you taste and smell a sample, there’s no need to work in the dark. Taking a photograph of the sample cheese before you taste it will guide your endeavors.

3. Plan and Prepare Wouldn’t you love to make cheese once a week or twice a month and have that to share with family or friends? Once you become proficient, you can make not just one but two or three cheeses in the same session, especially if they are cheeses of the same style. That’s an efficient use of your time, and it allows you to make enough cheese for your own use and some to age or share. Here are some basic steps to help you manage the project and be successful, whether you are making one cheese or several:

■ Plan ahead. Some cheeses can be ready in an hour, while some need a 6-month lead time and lots of attention. Determine a realistic scope of work.■ Have your work space, equipment, and tools prepped and sanitary before you begin. ■ Keep a notebook to record your thoughts and observations. This is a great catchment system for valuable information that you can apply to subsequent cheese making sessions or use in problem solving. Detailed checklists, worksheets, guides, and observation forms are available for download on this book’s companion website at www.artisancheesemakingathome.com.

4. Keep It Safe and Sanitary When using your kitchen to make any food, but perhaps especially cheese, it is imperative to ensure your space is safe to work in (no clutter or pets around) and is sanitary. While bacteria is part of cheese making, it needs to be the right kind! Don’t try to cook anything else while making cheese. This can lead to cross contamination and also distract your attention from the cheese.

Before you begin:

■ Sanitize your work station with a commercial cleaner or a bleach-water sanitizing solution of 2 tablespoons household bleach dissolved in 1 gallon of water. ■ Keep a roll of paper towels within reach and a small trash receptacle next to it.

■ Sanitize your cheese making pots, equipment, and utensils before and after using. To sanitize properly, wash with hot soapy water, rinse with water, then rinse again with 2 tablespoons household bleach dissolved in 1 gallon of water. Allow to air-dry on a rack set on a sheet pan rather than in your dish drainer to minimize contact with bacteria.

■ Keep two clean cotton kitchen towels handy, one for laying out your working tools on and one for drying your hands.

■ Do not wear any fragrance while making cheese, as it masks your ability to use your sense of smell to guide the process.

■ Wash your hands thoroughly before starting and after handling any nonsterile items.

Equipment and Supplies

When you’re getting started, you can take much of your basic equipment from your existing kitchen arsenal of pots, colanders, measuring cups, measuring spoons, whisks, rubber spatulas, ladles, and slotted spoons. Once you are totally immersed in making cheese in your own kitchen, you may want to put pots aside that are dedicated to this function. Think of cheese making in the same way you would canning. Equipment set aside for that purpose is always easier to keep stored, clean, and collected.

Before making any cheese in the book, first read the recipe carefully and collect and sanitize all needed equipment. I have noted in the body of each formula which specialty equipment is needed, but will count on your having the following foundational supplies in your kitchen. If you are using specialty equipment or dedicated utensils and make cheese often, store them in a lidded box to protect them from dust and keep them ready for your next session.

The basic equipment and supplies you’ll need for nearly all the cheeses in this book include:

Originating in Italy, mascarpone is a mild and creamy fresh cheese with a consistency similar to soft butter or thick crème fraîche and a fat content between 70 and 75 percent. You may know it as the key ingredient in the decadent Italian dessert tiramisu. This recipe hails from Allison Hooper, award-winning cheese maker and co-owner of the notable Vermont Butter & Cheese Creamery (see page 35). The overnight process is virtually effortless, and the resulting cheese may very well be the best mascarpone I’ve ever tasted.

1. Read through the recipe and review any terms and techniques you aren’t familiar with (see chapter 1). Assemble your equipment, supplies, and ingredients, including a dairy or kitchen thermometer; clean and sterilize your equipment as needed and lay it out on clean kitchen towels.2. In a nonreactive, heavy 2-quart saucepan with a lid, whisk together the cream and powdered milk. Place over low heat and slowly bring to 180°F, stirring constantly to prevent scorching. It should take about 40 minutes to come to temperature. Turn off the heat.3. Slowly squeeze the juice from half of the lemon into the cream. Switch to a metal spoon and keep stirring; do not use a whisk, as that will inhibit the curd formation. Watch carefully to see if the cream starts to coagulate. You will not see a clean break between curds and whey. Rather, the cream will coat the spoon and you will start to see some flecks of solids in the cream.4. Add the juice from the remaining lemon half and stir with the spoon to incorporate. Cover the pan and cool the cream in the refrigerator for 8 hours or overnight.5. When the cream is firm to the touch, transfer it to a bowl or colander lined with clean, damp butter muslin. Draw the ends together and twist into a ball to squeeze out the excess moisture. This last step will make the mascarpone thick. 6. This cheese is now ready to eat. It has a very short shelf life, so refrigerate what you don’t eat immediately and use it within 2 days.

About Mary Karlin

MARY KARLIN is a passionate cook, cooking teacher, cookbook author, and freelance food writer. She was a founding staff member and is currently a visiting chef-instructor at the award-winning Ramekins Culinary School in Sonoma, CA, where she has taught wood-fired cooking, cheese making, fermentation, and Mediterranean-themed cooking classes for more than ten years.

Mary is also a guest instructor at The Fork at Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese in Point Reyes, CA, and The Cheese School of San Francisco, as well as at other prominent culinary venues around the United States. She teaches an online cheese making course entitled Artisan Cheese Making on Craftsy.com. Mary is the author of two previous acclaimed cookbooks Wood-Fired Cooking (2009) and Artisan Cheese Making at Home (2011).

When not teaching, Mary splits her time between Northern California and Arizona where she makes cheese, fills her pantry full of fermented food, and cooks at her wood-fired oven. Visit www.artisancheesemakingathome.com